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Chapter 8: the conquest of Kansas complete.
When the news of the defeat of
Clay Pate reached
Missouri, a force of twenty-one hundred mounted men, not one of them a citizen of
Kansas, set out from the border village of
Westport,
under the lead of the Territorial delegate to Congress, with the triple purpose of rescuing their brother-highwaymen, seizing Old Brown, and completing the conquest of the disputed land.
A few days before this invasion they had sent on supplies of provisions to the town of
Franklin, with cannon and ammunition for their coming forces; and there the Georgians began to concentrate, and committed robberies and other outrages on the persons and property of the
Free State men. To defeat the design of the Missourians, we marched upon
Franklin on the night of the 2d of June,--only a few days after the fight at
Black Jack,--and, after two or three hours of firing, chiefly in the dark, drove the ruffians out and captured their provisions.
We then retired to
Hickory Point, and there concentrated to oppose the invading force; which, although doubling us in numbers, we
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saw with great delight, on the 5th of June, in battle array on the prairies near
Palmyra.
Every one in our camp was exultant at the prospect of obliterating and avenging the disgrace of
Lawrence.
But the
Federal troops hastened down, and
induced the Missourians to retire; which, knowing our readiness to fight, they willingly consented to do; but not until, in cold blood, they had murdered seven Free State men, not one of whom was armed, when they were taken prisoners by the invading forces.
Mr. Cantroll was murdered by a ruffian named
Forman, one of
Captain Pate's men, who was wounded at
Black Jack, carefully nursed at
Prairie City, and dismissed by his captors uninjured.
Of such were the
Southern companies.
The
Captain of the dragoons, when near
Prairie City, heard that
Old John Brown was in the neighborhood, and sent a messenger to him, requesting to have an interview.
The old man came in response to the call, and voluntarily offered to give up his prisoners, in order that they might be tried for their highway robberies.
But the dragoons insisted that they should be unconditionally surrendered; as, whatever their offences might be, there was no warrant out against them; and to receive them as prisoners, as the old man proposed, would be tacitly to admit that civil war existed, which, as a Federal officer, he could not acknowledge.
John Brown had voluntarily entered the camp of the dragoons, who never could have discovered or dared to penetrate his hiding place; for, as a Kansas author has truly said, “so carefully could he conceal his quarters, that when you wished to find him, when
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he does not wish it, you might as well hunt for a needle in a haystack.”
He was astonished and indignant when the
Federal officer informed him that he must consider himself a prisoner, as a civil functionary, who accompanied the troops, had a warrant out for him which he was there to serve.
“Take my advice,” said the officer, “and make no resistance.”
Captain Brown answered that if any territorial official dared to serve a writ on him, he would shoot him dead on the spot; and, fixing his stern glance on the
Marshal, convinced that trembling official that the presence of a company of soldiers would not save him from the fate the old man threatened.
Pate liberated.
Colonel S- ordered him to stand by his stirrup and lead him into camp.
Under these circumstances, the dragoons went into the
camp of Old Brown.
So rapidly and unexpectedly did the thing occur, that there was no opportunity to secure the arms and horses taken at
Black Jack.
Only fifteen of
Brown's men were in the camp at the moment they entered it;
1 but that camp,
Colonel S--, who was astonished at it, afterwards said, a small garrison could have held against a thousand men, as, from the peculiar nature of the ground, artillery could not be brought to bear on it. It is not wonderful that both
Colonel S- and the
Deputy Sheriff should come to the conclusion that the handful of Free State men they saw, with nearly twice their own number of prisoners, were only a part of
Brown's force.
They believed that a hundred riflemen must be concealed in the thickets around it; consequently the tone of these gallant officers and gentlemen grew more urbane and polite.
Colonel S asked the
Deputy Sheriff if he had not some writs of arrest.
Deputy looked carefully around him, fixed his timid, irresolute eyes on the prisoners, and the small band
Captain Brown had with him, and at the dense and mysterious looking thickets around him, and said, in a hesitating voice,
“ Well, I believe I don't see any body here against whom I have any writ.”
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“ You don't! ” said
Colonel S--, indignantly.
“ What did you tell me you had for?
What did you mean by getting my help to make arrests, if you have none?”
“Well,” faltered the hesitating Deputy, “ I don't think there is any body here I
want to arrest!”
Colonel S- , who is rather blunt and off-handed, and not much of a believer in humbug, gave the Deputy an objurgatory piece of his mind, which I need not inflict on the reader.
He then liberated
Captain Pate and the other prisoners.
These men had been treated exceedingly well by
Captain Brown.
They were allowed to use their own blankets and camp equipage, which were much better than any thing
Brown had; they also were fed, while thus held captive, much better than
Brown was able to feed his own soldiers.
Not only did the prisoners get their liberty, but their horses, arms, equipage, and stores; nearly all that had been taken, and all except what
Brown had given to those who came the day of the battle to help, or was in the hands of some others who had been there, and who were not now here.
The guns these men had were
United States arms.
“Where did you get these arms?”
asked
Colonel S- of
Captain Pate.
“We got them from a friend,” was the reply.
2
“ A friend!
” growled S-. “ What friend had a right, or could give you
United States arms?”
In this dilemma,
Captain Pate did as many a wise man has done before him — evaded the question when he did not feel it advisable to answer it. The arms in question were the public Territorial arms, given in charge of the
Federal officers of the
Territory, for the use of the
Territory, and by them given to the Missourians.
This not being exactly a fit story to tell,
Pate entered into a disquisition on the general subject of his imprisonment, and told S- that he he was acting under orders of
Governor Shannon; and that his being taken prisoner was an outrage.
“That is false, sir!”
said
Colonel S-, sternly; “I had a conversation with
Governor Shannon about your particular case, and he declared that you had no authority for going about the country with an armed force.”
There was no replying to this; and the enraged and silenced
Pate bit his lip.
Colonel S-went on and denounced him for his conduct in language more pointed and succinct than complimentary.
He wound up his remarks, however, by allowing
Pate to take every
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thing his company had — even the public arms.
Captain Brown and his company were then ordered to disperse.
3
This was the first instance in which the Missourians were officially reprimanded; and for this rebuke,
Colonel Sumner, a relative of the distinguished
Massachusetts Senator, was immediately superseded in command!
Sacking of Ossawatomie.
The force under
Whitfield, although they had given their word of honor to disperse, committed numerous and brutal depredations and outrages; and on the 7th of June, one division of it entered the town of Ossawatomie without resistance.
Lest I should be supposed to be a partisan historian, I will transcribe an account of their proceedings there, as written by a National Democrat, then a Federal officeholder:
On the 7th, Reid, with one hundred and seventy men, marched into Ossawatomie, and, without resistance, entered each house, robbing it of every thing of value.
There were but few men in the town, and the women and children were treated with the utmost brutality.
Stores and dwellings were alike entered and pillaged.
Trunks, boxes, and desks were broken open, and their contents appropriated or destroyed.
Even rings were rudely pulled from the ears and fingers of the women, and some of the apparel from their persons.
The liquor found was freely drank, and served to incite the plunderers to increased violence in the prosecution of their mischievous work.
Having completely stripped the town, they set fire to several houses, and then beat a rapid retreat, carrying off a number of horses, and loudly urging each other to greater haste, as ‘ the d-d abolitionists were coming!
’ There are hundreds of well-authenticated accounts of the cruelties practised by this horde of ruffians; some of them too shocking and disgusting to relate, or to be accredited if told.
The tears and shrieks of terrified women, folded in their foul embrace, failed to touch a chord of mercy in their brutal hearts; and the mutilated
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bodies of murdered men, hanging upon the trees, or left to rot upon the prairies, or in the deep ravines, or furnish food for vultures and wild beasts, told frightful stories of brutal ferocity, from which the wildest savages might have shrunk with horror.
And why?
Because the
North had consented to league and compromise with the hideous crime of Southern slavery.
The South triumphant.
Every movement made by the
Free State men to defeat and punish the crimes of these organized marauders, was thwarted by the
Federal troops, who, in an official proclamation, were ordered to disperse “all persons belonging to military companies, unauthorized by law;” in which were not included the banded Southern invaders, for they, as soon as they crossed over the border, were organized into Territorial militia.
The face of Freedom was gloomy; every where the
South was triumphant, or
had conquered; only one additional indignity remained to be inflicted.
Topeka had hitherto escaped the ravages of the ruffians.
There,
Colonel Aaron C. Stevens, a man afterwards destined to be immortally associated in fame with
John Brown, had a company of Free State boys, who were ever on the alert to defeat the designs of the invaders, and always ready, at call, to march out against them.
Up to this time, also, the
Free State Constitution had preserved its vitality.
On the 4th of July, 1856, the crowning victory of the
South was gained — not by their own cowardly forces, whom
Black Jack,
Franklin, and a series of successful guerilla fights had inspired
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with a salutary aversion to battles, but by companies of artillery and dragoons of the United States army, led on by a Federal officer.
On that day, when, elsewhere,
Americans were celebrating the birth-day of their liberty, the
Free State Legislature was broken up by force, and by the command of the
Federal Executive.
This was the last drop of bitterness in the
Free State cup; and this was, also, the culmination of Southern success; the date, at once, of the death and the resurrection of Freedom in
Kansas.
The
Missouri River was closed against Northern emigration; “the roads were literally strewed with dead bodies;”
4 the entire Free State population of
Leavenworth had been driven from their homes; almost every part of
Kansas was in the power of the invaders; the army, and the
Government, Federal and Territorial, the Bench and the Jury box were in the hands of the oppressor; and our State Organization had been destroyed by the Dragoons; but this assemblage of eight hundred men at
Topeka, on the 4th of July, inspired a feeling of unity and power never known before ; and, slowly coming to the
Territory, with a little army, but a mightier influence of inspiring rude men with furious passions, was General “Jim Lane;” while, in the woods near the town, lay
John Brown encamped, who did not despair, but was ready to release the prisoners at
Lecompton, or attack the Dragoons if the party would advise it. They did not; and he left the town.
